The report says that company car drivers are amongst its list of those groups with lower seat belt wearing rates. It also shows that only 69% of drivers of vans, lorries, buses, coaches and minibuses regularly wear seat belts. It added that these groups are less likely to wear belts late at night or early in the morning.

The research also says that more than a third of car occupants killed in collisions are not wearing seat belts. Using a seatbelt more than halves the risk of death in a collision. Nearly 300 lives per year would be saved if all car occupants belted up.

Commenting, Edmund King, AA president, said: 'It is astonishing that one third of vehicle occupants killed do not wear seat belts. In the current safety debate with concerns over road safety funding there is one thing that could be done overnight to save 300 lives per year at no cost – that is every vehicle occupant to belt up on every journey.

'It is tragic that 40 years after Jimmy Savile’s iconic campaign that so many drivers still don’t clunk click every trip. There are a lot of lessons to be learnt from Princess Diana’s tragic death in Paris in terms of driving too fast, drink/drug driving and the added risks of not wearing a seat belt.'

As a result, the “Clunk Click – AA Seat Belt Report” makes a number of recommendations, including that employers should be stricter with professional drivers who don’t belt up. The AA is also calling for the Government to consider increasing the penalty for drivers not wearing seat belts to include penalty points and for the police to carry out more spot-checks particularly on back seat passengers.